TITLE 12. VIOLENT CRIME INFORMATION CENTER [14200. - 14216.]

Cal. Penal Code - PEN 4.

in effect

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14200. Section 14200.

(a) The Attorney General shall establish and maintain the Violent Crime Information Center to assist in the identification and the apprehension of persons responsible for specific violent crimes and for the disappearance and exploitation of persons, particularly children and at-risk adults. (b) The center shall establish and maintain programs which include, but are not limited to, all of the following: (1) Developing violent offender profiles. (2) Assisting local law enforcement agencies and county district attorneys by providing investigative information on persons responsible for specific violent crimes and missing person cases. (3) Providing physical description information and photographs, if available, of missing persons to county district attorneys, nonprofit missing persons organizations, and schools. (4) Providing statistics on missing at-risk adults and on missing children, including, as may be applicable, family abductions, nonfamily abductions, voluntary missing, and lost children or lost at-risk adults. (c) The Attorney General shall provide training on the services provided by the center to line personnel, supervisors, and investigators in the following fields: law enforcement, district attorneys’ offices, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, probation departments, court mediation services, and the judiciary.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14201. Section 14201.

The Attorney General shall employ within the Department Justice, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, crime analysts with expertise in child abuse, missing persons, child abductions, and sexual assaults, who shall electronically share their data, analysis, and findings on violent crime cases with each other, and to electronically provide law enforcement agencies with information to assist in the identification, tracking, and apprehension of violent offenders.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14201.2. Section 14201.2.

Notwithstanding any other law, a law enforcement agency may request a copy of information or data maintained by the Department of Justice pursuant to this title, for the purpose of linking an unsolved missing or unidentified person case with another case that was previously unknown to be related to that case, or for the purpose of resolving an unsolved missing or unidentified person case. This section does not supersede subdivision (b) of Section 14204 or subdivision (f) of Section 14205.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14202. Section 14202.

The Attorney General shall establish and maintain, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, the California Sex and Arson Registry to track and monitor offenders and their activities. The system shall provide local law enforcement agencies with investigative leads to assist in the resolution of violent crimes.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14203. Section 14203.

(a) The Attorney General shall establish and maintain within the center an investigative support unit and an automated violent crime method of operation system to facilitate the identification and apprehension of persons responsible for murder, kidnap, including parental abduction, false imprisonment, or sexual assault. This unit shall be responsible for identifying perpetrators of violent felonies collected from the center and analyzing and comparing data on missing persons in order to determine possible leads which could assist local law enforcement agencies. This unit shall only release information about active investigations by police and sheriffs’ departments to local law enforcement agencies. (b) The Attorney General shall make available to the investigative support unit files organized by category of offender or victim and shall seek information from other files as needed by the unit. This set of files may include, among others, the following: (1) Missing or unidentified, deceased persons’ dental files filed pursuant to this title, Section 27521 of the Government Code, or Section 102870 of the Health and Safety Code. (2) Child abuse reports filed pursuant to Section 11169. (3) Sex offender registration files maintained pursuant to Section 290. (4) State summary criminal history information maintained pursuant to Section 11105. (5) Information obtained pursuant to the parent locator service maintained pursuant to Section 11478.1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. (6) Information furnished to the Department of Justice pursuant to Section 11107. (7) Other Attorney General’s office files as requested by the investigative support unit. (c) The investigative support unit shall make available, within two hours of a reported stranger abduction of a child, a list of persons required to register as sex offenders based upon the modus operandi, if available, or the specified geographical location from which the child was abducted.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14204. Section 14204.

(a) The Attorney General shall establish within the center and shall maintain an online, automated computer system designed to effect an immediate law enforcement response to reports of missing persons. The Attorney General shall design the computer system, using any existing system, including the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, to include an active file of information concerning persons reported to it as missing and who have not been reported as found. The computer system shall also include a confidential historic database. The Attorney General shall develop a system of cataloging missing person reports according to a variety of characteristics in order to facilitate locating particular categories of reports as needed. (b) The Attorney General’s active files described in subdivision (a) shall be made available to law enforcement agencies. The Attorney General shall provide to these agencies the name and personal description data of the missing person including, but not limited to, the person’s date of birth, color of eyes and hair, sex, height, weight, and race, the time and date he or she was reported missing, the reporting agency, and any other data pertinent to the purpose of locating missing persons. However, the Attorney General shall not release the information if the reporting agency requests the Attorney General in writing not to release the information because it would impair a criminal investigation. (c) The Attorney General shall distribute a missing children and at-risk adults bulletin on a quarterly basis to local law enforcement agencies, district attorneys, and public schools. The Attorney General shall also make this information accessible to other parties involved in efforts to locate missing children and at-risk adults and to those other persons as the Attorney General deems appropriate.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14205. Section 14205.

(a) The online missing persons registry shall accept and generate complete information on a missing person. (b) The information on a missing person shall be retrievable by any of the following: (1) The person’s name. (2) The person’s date of birth. (3) The person’s social security number. (4) Whether a dental chart has been received, coded, and entered into the National Crime Information Center Missing Person System by the Attorney General. (5) The person’s physical description, including hair and eye color and body marks. (6) The person’s known associates. (7) The person’s last known location. (8) The name or assumed name of the abductor, if applicable, other pertinent information relating to the abductor or the assumed abductor, or both. (9) Any other information, as deemed appropriate by the Attorney General. (c) The Attorney General, in consultation with local law enforcement agencies and other user groups, shall develop the form in which information shall be entered into the system. (d) The Attorney General shall establish and maintain within the center a separate, confidential historic database relating to missing children and at-risk adults. The historic database may be used only by the center for statistical and research purposes. The historic database shall be set up to categorize cases relating to missing children and at-risk adults by type. These types shall include the following: (1) Runaways. (2) Voluntary missing. (3) Lost. (4) Abduction involving movement of the victim in the commission of the crime or sexual exploitation. (5) Nonfamily abduction. (6) Family abduction. (7) Any other categories as determined by the Attorney General. (e) In addition, the data shall include the number of missing children and missing at-risk adults in this state and the category of each case. (f) The center may supply information about specific cases from the historic database to a local police department, sheriff’s department, or district attorney, only in connection with an investigation by the police department, sheriff’s department, or district attorney of a missing person case or a violation or attempted violation of Section 220, 261.5, 273a, 273d, or 273.5, or any sex offense listed in Section 290, except for the offense specified in subdivision (d) of Section 243.4.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14206. Section 14206.

(a) The Attorney General shall establish within the Department of Justice the Missing and Exploited Children’s Recovery Network by July 31, 1995. (b) This network shall consist of an automated computerized system that shall have the capability to electronically transmit to all state and local law enforcement agencies, and all cooperating news media services, either by facsimile or computer modem, a missing child poster that includes the name, personal description data, and picture of the missing child. The information contained in this poster shall include, but not be limited to, the child’s date of birth, color of eyes and hair, sex, height, weight, race, the time and date he or she was reported missing, the reporting agency, including contact person at reporting agency if known, and any other data pertinent to the purpose of locating missing persons. (c) The Department of Justice shall work in cooperation with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to develop and implement a network that can electronically interface with the National Missing and Exploited Children’s Network. (d) The Attorney General shall implement this network within existing Department of Justice resources.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14207. Section 14207.

(a) The Department of Justice shall establish and maintain a publicly accessible computer Internet directory of information relating to the following: (1) Persons for whom an arrest warrant has been issued pursuant to an alleged violation of any offense defined as a violent felony in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5. (2) At-risk missing persons. (3) Unsolved homicides and unidentified persons. (b) The Attorney General may determine the extent of information and the priority of cases to be included in the directory. (c) The department shall keep confidential, and not enter into the directory, either of the following: (1) Information regarding any case for which the Attorney General has determined that disclosure pursuant to this section would endanger the safety of a person involved in an investigation or the successful completion of the investigation or a related investigation. (2) Information regarding an arrest warrant for which the issuing magistrate has determined that disclosure pursuant to this section would endanger the safety of a person involved in an investigation or the successful completion of the investigation or a related investigation.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14208. Section 14208.

(a) There shall be within the Department of Justice a director responsible for coordinating California’s response to missing persons. This position is hereby established for all of the following purposes: (1) To assist law enforcement agencies, at their request, with the timely search and recovery of missing children. (2) To maintain up-to-date knowledge and expertise of those protocols, best practices, and technologies that are most effective for recovering missing children in a timely manner. (3) To maintain relationships with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and other entities responsible for the investigation of missing persons in the state. (4) To maintain records and make the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training Guidelines for Handling Missing Persons Investigations document available to law enforcement agencies upon request. (b) The director shall utilize existing resources and expertise within the Attorney General’s office to the maximum extent possible to accomplish the purposes specified in subdivision (a).

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14209. Section 14209.

The center shall make accessible to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System specific information authorized for dissemination and as determined appropriate by the center that is contained in law enforcement reports regarding missing or unidentified persons. The information shall be accessible in a manner and format approved by the center and shall be used to assist in the search for the missing person or persons. The center shall not permit the transmission or sharing of information, or portions of information, to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System unless the reporting agency, as specified in Section 14211, or the reporting party, with respect to the information submitted to the center, submits authorization to the center to transmit or share that information.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14210. Section 14210.

(a) The Department of Justice shall operate a statewide, toll-free telephone hotline 24 hours per day, seven days per week to receive information regarding missing children and at-risk adults and relay this information to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. (b) The Department of Justice shall select up to six persons per month from the missing persons publicly accessible computer Internet directory maintained pursuant to Section 14207 and shall produce posters with photographs and information regarding these persons, including the hotline telephone number and reward information. The department shall make these posters available to parties as prescribed and as the department deems appropriate. (c) The Department of Justice shall provide appropriate local reporting agencies with a list of persons still listed as missing who are under 21 years of age, and with an appropriate waiver form in order to assist the reporting agency in obtaining a photograph of each of the missing children. (d) Local reporting agencies shall attempt to obtain the most recent photograph available for persons still listed as missing and forward those photographs to the Department of Justice. (e) The department shall include these photographs, as they become available, in the quarterly bulletins pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 14204. (f) State and local elected officials, agencies, departments, boards, and commissions may enclose in their mailings information regarding missing children or at-risk adults obtainable from the Department of Justice or any organization that is recognized as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization under state or federal law and that has an ongoing missing children program. Elected officials, agency secretaries, and directors of departments, boards, and commissions are urged to develop policies to enclose missing children or at-risk adults information in mailings if it will not increase postage costs and is otherwise deemed appropriate.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14211. Section 14211.

(a) All local police and sheriffs’ departments shall accept any report, by any party, including any telephonic report, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay and shall give priority to the handling of these reports over the handling of reports relating to crimes involving property. (b) If the person making a report of a missing person or runaway, contacts, including by telephone, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the Department of the California Highway Patrol may take the report, and shall immediately advise the person making the report of the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff’s department having jurisdiction of the residence address of the missing person and of the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff’s department having jurisdiction of the place where the person was last seen. (c) In cases of reports involving missing persons, including, but not limited to, runaways, the local police or sheriff’s department shall immediately take the report and make an assessment of reasonable steps to be taken to locate the person by using the report forms, checklists, and guidelines required under Section 13519.07. (d) If the missing person is under 21 years of age, or there is evidence that the person is at risk, the police department or sheriff’s department shall broadcast a “Be On the Lookout” bulletin, without delay, within its jurisdiction. (e) If the person reported missing is under 21 years of age, or if there is evidence that the person is at risk, the law enforcement agency receiving the report shall, within two hours after the receipt of the report, electronically transmit the report to the Department of Justice via the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System for inclusion in the Violent Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center databases. (f) Information not immediately available for electronic transmission to the department shall be obtained by the investigating agency and provided as a supplement to the original entry as soon as possible, but in no event later than 60 days after the original electronic entry. Supplemental information may include, but is not limited to, the following: (1) Dental records and treatment notes. (2) Fingerprints. (3) Photographs. (4) Description of physical characteristics. (5) Description of clothing the person was wearing when last seen. (6) Vehicle information. (7) Other information describing any person or vehicle believed to be involved in taking, abducting, or retaining the missing person. (g) If the report is taken by a department, other than that of the city or county of residence of the missing person or runaway, the department, or division of the Department of the California Highway Patrol taking the report shall, without delay, and, in the case of persons under 21 years of age or if there was evidence that the missing person was at risk, within no more than 24 hours, notify, and forward a copy of the report to the police or sheriff’s department or departments having jurisdiction of the residence address of the missing person or runaway and of the place where the person was last seen. The report shall also be submitted by the department or division of the Department of the California Highway Patrol which took the report to the center. The initial California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System record may only be removed after the receiving agency has accepted the report.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14212. Section 14212.

(a) If any person makes a report of a missing person to a police department, sheriff’s department, district attorney’s office, Department of the California Highway Patrol, or other law enforcement agency, the agency shall use the Attorney General’s form as required under Section 13519.07. That form shall include a statement authorizing the release of the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and treatment notes, of the person reported missing and authorizing the release of a recent photograph of a person reported missing who is under 18 years of age. (b) Included with the form shall be instructions that state that if the person reported missing is still missing 30 days after the report is made, the release form signed by a member of the family or next of kin of the missing person shall be taken by the family member or next of kin to the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility in order to obtain the release of the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and treatment notes, of that person or may be taken by a peace officer, if others fail to take action, to secure those X-rays and treatment notes. (c) Notwithstanding any other law, dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and treatment notes, shall be released by the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility to the person presenting the request and shall be submitted within 10 days by that person to the police or sheriff’s department or other law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the investigation. (d) If the person reported missing has been determined by the agency to be an at-risk person, has not been found within 30 days, and the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and treatment notes have not been released pursuant to subdivision (b) or otherwise obtained, the law enforcement agency shall execute a written declaration, stating that an active investigation seeking the location of the missing person is being conducted, and that the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and treatment notes, are necessary for the exclusive purpose of furthering the investigation. (e) Notwithstanding any other law, the written declaration, signed by a peace officer, is sufficient authority for the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility to immediately release the missing person’s dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, or treatment notes. (f) The Attorney General’s office shall code and enter the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, into the center’s database, which shall serve as the statewide database for those X-rays, and shall forward the information to the National Crime Information Center. (g) If a person reported missing has not been found within 30 days, the sheriff, chief of police, or other law enforcement agency conducting the investigation for the missing person may confer with the coroner or medical examiner prior to the preparation of a missing person report. The coroner or medical examiner shall cooperate with the law enforcement agency. After conferring with the coroner or medical examiner, the sheriff, chief of police, or other law enforcement agency initiating and conducting the investigation for the missing person may submit a missing person report and the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and photograph received pursuant to subdivision (a) to the Attorney General’s office in a format acceptable to the Attorney General. (h) Nothing in this section prohibits a parent or guardian of a child, reported to a law enforcement agency as missing, from voluntarily submitting fingerprints, and other documents, to the law enforcement agency accepting the report for inclusion in the report which is submitted to the Attorney General.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14213. Section 14213.

(a) When a person reported missing has been found, the sheriff, chief of police, coroner or medical examiner, or the law enforcement agency locating the missing person shall immediately report that information to the Attorney General’s office. The Attorney General’s office shall then notify the National Crime Information Center that the missing person has been found. (b) When a missing person is found, the report indicating that the person is found shall be made not later than 24 hours after the person is found to the law enforcement agency that made the initial missing person report. (c) In the event that a missing person is found alive or dead in less than 24 hours and the local police or sheriff’s department has reason to believe that the person had been abducted, the department shall submit a report to the center in a format established by the Attorney General. In the event that a missing person has been found before he or she has been reported missing to the center, the information related to the incident shall be submitted to the center. (d) A law enforcement agency shall not establish or maintain any policy that requires the removal of a missing person entry from the center database or the National Crime Information Center database based solely on the age of the missing person.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14214. Section 14214.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that it is the duty of all law enforcement agencies to immediately assist any person who is attempting to make a report of a missing person or runaway. (b) The Department of the California Highway Patrol shall continue to implement the written policy, required to be developed and adopted pursuant to former Section 11114.3, for the coordination of each of its divisions with the police and sheriffs’ departments located within each division in taking, transmitting, and investigating reports of missing persons, including runaways.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14215. Section 14215.

(a) As used in this title, “missing person” includes, but is not limited to, any of the following: (1) An at-risk adult. (2) A child who has been taken, detained, concealed, enticed away, or retained by a parent in violation of Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 277) of Title 9 of Part 1. (3) A child who is missing voluntarily or involuntarily, or under circumstances not conforming to his or her ordinary habits or behavior and who may be in need of assistance. (b) As used in this title, “at-risk” means there is evidence of, or there are indications of, any of the following: (1) The person missing is the victim of a crime or foul play. (2) The person missing is in need of medical attention. (3) The person missing has no pattern of running away or disappearing. (4) The person missing may be the victim of parental abduction. (5) The person missing is mentally impaired, including cognitively impaired or developmentally disabled. (c) As used in this title, “child” is any person under 18 years of age. (d) As used in this title, “center” means the Violent Crime Information Center. (e) As used in this title, “dental or medical records or X-rays” include all those records or X-rays which are in the possession of a dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility. (f) As used in this title, “unidentified person” means a person, living or deceased, whose identity the local investigative agency is unable to determine.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 14216. Section 14216.

(a) The Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, shall update any supervised release file that is available to law enforcement on the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System every 10 days to reflect the most recent inmates paroled from facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (b) The Department of Justice, in consultation with the State Department of State Hospitals, shall also update any supervised release file that is available to law enforcement on the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System every 10 days to reflect patients undergoing community mental health treatment and supervision through the Forensic Conditional Release Program administered by the State Department of State Hospitals, other than individuals committed as incompetent to stand trial pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 1367) of Title 10 of Part 2. (c) Each county probation department or other supervising county agency shall every 10 days, update any supervised release file that is available to them on the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System by entering any person placed onto postconviction supervision within their jurisdiction and under their authority, including persons on probation, mandatory supervision, and postrelease community supervision.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026